Abilene ? Even at age 90, Reaves Armstrong still has the bug to build buggies.

Since 1991, the Abilene resident has built hundreds of detailed 19th century horse-drawn wagons in his home workshop, ranging from medicine wagons to black hearses.

No one will ever drive these wagons, however. Armstrong’s buggies are miniatures, built to one-twelfth scale of the full-sized models.

Armstrong painstakingly recreates these classic buggies, wagons and carriages using period photographs and blueprints to produce precision-crafted replicas created from the finest cherry, maple or walnut wood and connected by up to 60 miniature brass screws, washers and nuts.

“There are no shortcuts, and it doesn’t get easier,” Armstrong said. “Lucky I still have good eyesight.”

A former commercial artist and retired art instructor at Salina’s Vo-Tech (now Salina Area Technical School), Armstrong switched from brushes to jeweler’s tools as he morphed from artist to craftsman.

On the road

For the past 20 years, he and his wife, Bonnie, have taken their miniature buggies to regional arts and craft shows and county fairs and sold them under their company banner, Armstrong Woodworks.

The collectible buggies and wagons come in 13 different models, including an ice wagon, medicine wagon, Studebaker doctor’s buggy, surrey with a fringe on top, ice cream wagon, station wagon (a four-seat buggy), Texas buckboard, milk wagon, Ohio and Pennsylvania Amish buggies, a mail wagon with mail slots, a Jenny Lind carriage, a park carriage and an 1895 hearse, which has become a popular collectors item for area funeral directors.

All the buggies are built to the same uniform size and individually numbered. They range in price from $400 for a buckboard wagon to about $1,200 for a hearse (which also can be embossed with the name of a specific funeral home on its glass-encased carriage).

Armstrong tends to work on at least two buggies at once and said each takes about five to six weeks to complete.

“I’ll go down to the basement at 7 p.m. and start working and don’t look up,” he said. “When I do, three or four hours have passed.”

Armstrong’s son, Jerry, said he is amazed his father can still do such painstakingly detailed craft work at the age of 90.

“We thought that when he retired, he’d be a painter,” Jerry said. “Instead, he became what he called a ‘wood butcher.’ He’s always setting new challenges for himself, adding details to make them more complicated.”

Swedish cabinetmakers

For Armstrong, the buggy bug started nearly more than 70 years ago. At age 18, the Detroit, Mich., native worked for three Swedish cabinetmakers who built buggies from scratch in their spare time.

“They were true craftsmen,” Armstrong said. “All I did was sweep for them, but being around them I learned to do it, too.”

Armstrong didn’t see much of a future in buggy building, so during World War II he decided to become a commercial artist while in the U.S. Army and stationed at Fort Riley. After his discharge, he worked as commercial artist and designer in the Detroit area.

Armstrong met Bonnie at a USO dance at Fort Riley. After marrying and living in Detroit for the better part of two decades, the couple decided to relocate to Abilene, where Armstrong taught commercial art for 22 years at the Salina vo-tech.

They’ve have been married 61 years.

“He can’t get along without me,” said Bonnie, 86. “He doesn’t know that yet.”

After Armstrong retired in 1989, he decided to put drawing aside and start crafting buggies and wagons, something he’d always wanted to take up again.

“I knew if I was going to do this again, I’d better have a lot of patience,” he said.

Armstrong builds each new style of buggy or wagon by first building a prototype (or first model). Jigs are constructed from the prototype to ensure precise fit and uniformity when building subsequent models.

All the vehicles are cut from maple, cherry or walnut and feature handmade wheels with 12 to 16 spokes, hinged doors, ribbed roofs, compartment lids, spring suspension and workable steering wheels. Seats and interiors often are upholstered in velvet or leather.

Armstrong avoids using glues to attach parts — each section of a wagon is connected by up to 60 nails, brass screws, washers and nuts that Armstrong inserts with tiny jeweler’s instruments.